Scratches
by ScarletEmpress2017
Summary: [Christmas present for N.C.-Anon] Part of my SoulmateAU. Sometimes, having a soulmate isn't all romance and fluffy happy endings like outsiders looking in think it is. There are heartbreaks and tragedies.


_2002_

At age five Alexis realized she didn't know much of everything. However, she was sure of three things. The first was that she had no parents. Just Aunt Alana and occasionally Aunt Carter. The second; that she and her younger twin brother, Zander, would always be together. And the third was that somewhere out in the world, someone had her name on their hand, just like she had theirs on hers.

Now, if only she could read it.

Most days, when she was so happy, she would copy the name down on any and every surface she dared. On the few days when she was frustrated with her inability to read it, she glared at her hand so harshly that Aunt Alana and Zander joked that it would fall off. And the days in between, when the curiosity made her restless, she stared at it trying to understand, never really knowing.

 _2006_

Alexis sat on the lowest bleacher in the sports auditorium and stared at her soulmark in frustration. She still couldn't make out what her soulmate's name was. Heck, she didn't understand why it was bothering her so much. Maybe it was the fact that everyone around her was going absolutely gaga over theirs.

"Can't read yours either, can you?"

She instinctively hid her hand behind her back and mentally kicked herself. It wasn't _normal_ to hide your soulmark. Alexis stared up at the girl with cornrows. The girl looked surprised in return. Then she smiled almost knowingly. Alexis was floored. How did this girl know that?

"How'd you know that? Wait — either? How? You can't understand yours too?"

The other girl smiled again and nodded. She held out her hand for Alexis to see. Alexis stared at the symbols on the stranger's wrist, puzzled. Aside from a letter K, nothing made sense.

"What language _is_ that?"

"Don't know," she answered. "Can I see yours?"

Nervously, Alexis held out her right palm. The other girl studied the markings for a bit, and then looked away cross-eyed.

"I don't know what that is, but it does kinda look like Chinese," she said.

Chinese?

"You really think so?"

"I dunno, maybe? That's just what it looks like to me," she said with a shrug.

"What's your name?" Alexis asked.

"Zemirah," the girl said.

"I'm Alexis."

~Scratches~

 _2008_

Alexis would never understand why her aunt would choose this summer to visit her sister in Gotham. And to be honest, she was pissed. She'd been dragged from her comfortable home in St. Martin and dragged to the darkest and dankest place she'd ever seen. The streets of Gotham were a far cry from the tropics, and the people in it were even further from friendly. Out of courtesy common to her, she happened to tell a man "Good afternoon", only for him to stop and scream curses at them all. Needless to say, she did _not_ do it again. She'd barely been there for twelve hours and she already hated the place. So what did she do? She grabbed her backpack and snuck out.

She didn't count on her follow-fashion twin tagging along.

They wound up wandering the streets for a few hours. She checked her watch. It was almost half-past ten. Aunt Alana would've called by now. Or even worse, gone after them.

"Sis, we should really go back…" Alexander murmured quietly.

Alexis didn't answer; she didn't want to say that she agreed. Ever since she stepped onto the street she had a bad feeling. And now it worsened, she felt like they were being watched. Without thinking, she shoved him into a nearby alley.

"Lexi, what are you do "

She cut him off with a hand clamped over his mouth.

"Alexander, I need you to be as quiet as possible," she hissed. "Can you do that?"

The younger twin nodded, knowing when she called him by his full name it was serious. Not caring where they went, Alexis picked the lock on the nearest door and shoved her brother inside. She quickly hurried to barricade it knowing the lock was now useless.

"Lexi, it's so dark…" Alexander softly complained, feeling along the wall for a light switch.

"Stop that!" she muttered. "Help me put something in front of this door."

Too late.

There was a sudden crash through the murkiness. Then shuffling and the sound of metal slicing through the air. And then footsteps and thumping as she threw the object nearest to her.

"Alexi-"

Silence.

"Zander? Zander! Alexander!"

She scrambled around, calling desperately for her twin. She fumbled for a light switch. She found it and the lights flickered on. She saw nothing but feral, predatory grins.

And then darkness.

~Scratches~

She couldn't breathe. Why couldn't she breathe? There was a loud creek followed by a resounding crash. Pain, excruciating pain, but suddenly she could breathe again. She gasped harshly for breath. Her eyes opened and she noticed that she lay in a sea of pink and red. Where the pink and red ended, a lot of dark blue stood. Dark blue blobs, a large black blob, and a smaller red one surrounded her.

Then nothing

~Scratches~

She woke up thrashing about. It wasn't until there was a sharp pain in her neck that she calmed down. She stared up at the too white ceiling in a drug-induced daze. She stared for hours and hours. So long, the room had darkened significantly before she realized she wasn't alone. She immediately bolted upright.

"Don't strain yourself," a gruff voice said gently.

She felt herself being coaxed into lying down. Grudgingly she did upon noticing the small face that was smiling down at her.

"Did you find anything on her?"

"Tried, no record of her on any US database."

"International?"

"I'm getting there…"

"Are you talking about me?"

The two turned to the girl on the bed. She stared at them with muted grey eyes. Similarly, her hair faded to lackluster silver. Robin was almost struck dumb staring at the sight.

"Uh… Bats…"

The Batman turned to the girl lying down, her hair and eyes no longer their original brown. Even the sickest, most twisted villains in the game could not strike fear into the caped crusader. But seeing an attacked child, seemingly unaffected, whose hair and eyes changed like a chameleon to a very sickly color was unnerving to say the least.

"I'll take a blood sample to analyzed back at the cave. You work on finding out who she is."

"Got it."

"And don't leave."

"No problem."

When the Dark Knight left, Robin was left to watch over the girl. The boy moved sit on the chair provided for visitors. She stared at him blankly, her grey eyes innocent and confused.

"You didn't answer my question."

Robin looked up at her, her stare sharp.

"Right. Yes, we were."

"Why?"

"It's part of our job."

"Oh."

She seemed satisfied with the answer and moved to twiddling her fingers. He sighed and went back to work searching any databases he could hack and find her identity. He had to admit it was a bit unnerving; the girl was about the same age as him and was sort of… disconnected.

"What's this?"

He looked up at her voice and looked at her again. This time her eyes were curious and actually sported a pale brown tint… He noted the color change to report to Batman later before looking at where she was pointing. She was pointing at her hand. He nearly dismissed her question before he realized what she meant. It wasn't her hand she was referring to; it was the name on it! The girl had a soulname! Robin smiled and gently explained it to her. When he finished, she returned to entertaining herself. The Dark Knight's apprentice added her soulname to the search. Several countries used soulnames as means of identification despite their rarity. The possibilities dwindled significantly. He looked back up at the name again. It was what appeared to be Japanese. But something was off about the name… It wasn't the solid black of a fully connected bond. It wasn't even the white of a soulmate not yet found. It was silver.

A dead soulmate.

Robin swallowed a shudder. Everything about this girl just screamed death. He returned to his search, augmenting it as he saw fit to try and find her identity. He added silver to the soulmark part of the search. The search dwindled down to two.

The first was Mara Thomas from Suriname; age eleven. He opened up a photo profile to confirm and… No dice. The eyes weren't the right shape, and neither was the nose. The second one was an Aisha Hodge from Guyana; age nine. Confirm… nope. Wrong skin tone and the hair was way too short. He went back to the parameters of the search and reviewed what he had. Hair, eyes, approximate age, height, weight, identifying marks- wait… He took away the identified language of the soulname and the search reconfigured. He came up with three.

Dianna Celestine from Curaçao; age ten… Nope. Tamania Henderson from St. Kitts; age nine… Uh-uh. He opened the final file, slightly annoyed. Alexis Kay from St. Maarten/St. Martin; age eleven… Match. He opened the file and looked over to the girl… Alexis. She'd fallen asleep.

"Batman, come in," he spoke into the communicator.

" _Do you have something?_ "

"Yup. Her name's Alexis Kay. She's a citizen of the French side of St. Martin, an island in the Caribbean. You do not wanna know how it was trying to figure out what parameters to set that search."

" _Any family?_ "

"Yeah, twin brother. Alexander. Their legal guardian is an Alana Kay, also a resident of St. Martin with US citizenship."

" _Parents?_ "

"Doesn't say."

" _What about the guardian?_ "

"Uh… Alana's parents are deceased but she does have a sister named Carter Kay… US citizen right here in Gotham."

" _I've got the address, heading there now._ "

~Scratches~

Batman pulled up to the address and parked in an alley. This was one of the nicer parts of Gotham. Neither sister had any sort of record, so perhaps the attack was personal? He looked to the window where Carter Kay's apartment was located. He did not like the sight that greeted him.

The window was wide open.

He made his way in silently, wary of alerting any neighbors. He took one look at the apartment and was immediately on high alert. The room was covered in blood. It painted the walls and there were a few bloodied prints on the floor. There were clear signs of a struggle. Carter Kay put up one damned good fight. The path of destruction led towards the kitchen. Carter Kay lay bloodstained on the floor. Batman quickly checked her pulse, it was weak, but she was alive.

But Alana was nowhere to be found.

~Scratches~

Alexis awoke to a woman with short dark-brown hair sporting a healing black eye and several bruises along with a lot of cuts and a split lip. The woman gently wrapped her in a hug.

"Thank goodness you're alright…"

After that, several doctors and nurses came to check on her. There were several words flying around, none she understood.

"Sweetheart, can you tell me your name?"

She stared at the nurse who asked her. He was gentle, but his eyes seemed to give away the severity of his words. Not coming up with an answer, she quickly decided for herself.

"Caroline Demüerto."

~Scratches~

 _2009_

Caroline made her way from the sports auditorium foyer to the main hall. Black Canary had convinced Batman to give her a break and she and Aunt Carter were on vacation in St. Maarten. Aunt Carter had signed her up for day camp for whatever odd reason. She guessed it was because they didn't have to dye her hair anymore. She looked to the very end where her group was supposed to be and walked over, not caring about the flighty group that seemed to be gushing over something, making dramatic motions and swooning exaggeratedly.

"Alexis!" she heard someone call.

Caroline didn't look up at the call, not wanting to raise attention with her curiosity. Who was this 'Alexis' person this girl was yelling for? And why wouldn't she answer? The person calling had a very obviously loud voice; you'd have to be completely deaf not to hear her. She looked up when she heard footsteps coming towards her.

"Alexis!" the voice said again.

Caroline stared at the girl like she'd grown an arm right out of her head.

"My name's Caroline."

Now it was this strange girl's turn to look at her strangely.

"What?"

"You heard me, my name's Caroline."

"You… Changed it?"

"It's been Caroline for as long as I've known."

"When I met you it was Alexis."

"I've never met you."

Now the girl looked less confused and closer to tears.

"You're name is Alexis Kay… You hate the color pink and yellow makes you wanna cringe. You love the color black and you like Avril Lavigne and Ke$ha songs, but your favorite band is 3OH!3. You like swings and high places and you don't like people disrespecting you or people you care about."

The girl took Caroline's left hand and removed the bandages on it. Her voice was starting to waver.

"You have a soulmark right here that you can't read because you don't even know the language it's in."

Caroline stared the other girl in the eye, she was crying but her gaze was determined. There was soft fear behind her resolve.

"I know you; you're one of my best friends."

"Who are you?"

"Zemirah Atlas."

~Scratches~

 _2010_

Pink Cougar sliced the plant-beast as it struck her. Poison Ivy had been hiding out and studying tropical flora in the Caribbean. And now she had begun to unleash them on her old home. Aqualad, Miss Martian and Artemis were on the French side of the island fighting a similar outbreak. She, Robin, Kid Flash and Zatanna were in Raoul Illidge Sports complex trying to quietly cut down Ivy's bloodthirsty foliage. She struck the next one that came at her. She was so immersed in battle, her super sensitive hearing didn't pick up the strange footfalls.

"NO!"

Pink Cougar whirled around at the sound and turned to find a white-hooded figure in dark blue jeans in front of her. But that wasn't the surprising bit.

 _They were generating a giant crystalline barrier._

The bubble shielded them from a plant's hits as bashed itself against the blockade. With every strike it seemed to get angrier, but the bubble didn't falter. Looking back at the bubble's conjuror, Pink Cougar found she recognized the figure.

"Zemirah?!"

Zemirah turned at her name and ran to her friend, the shield holding up on its own. She hugged her uncaring of the carnage around her.

"I was so worried!"

"Worried? Zemirah, _what_ are you doing here?"

"I heard noise, so I snuck out to see wha' was happening- Saw that… abomination sneaking up on you an' I couldn't just let it."

" _You snuck out?!_ "

"Just a little! It's not like I went Town!"

Noticing several of the plants were beginning to converge on them, Pink Cougar took Zemirah by the shoulders and dropped the previous conversation.

"You need to get out of here."

"I'm not letting you fight these things by yourself!"

"That's not the point! Out!"

"I not going anywhere!"

"What are you going to do?"

Zemirah just stared flatly before motioning to the still-standing barrier, which several monsters were now ramming themselves against. Fruitlessly trying to break through. Caroline stared at her smirking friend with an annoyed stare.

"Okay… aside from that."

"These… Things are plants, right?

"Yes…"

"Just give me five minutes and I _promise_ you this fight will be over."

Pink Cougar took her words into consideration. Zemirah didn't make promises she couldn't keep. Against her better judgment, she agreed. The bubble shattered and its shards went flying; striking every one of Poison Ivy's beasts. Then, one by one, they were set ablaze. Pink Cougar, Robin, Zatanna, and Kid Flash all stared as the things let out horrifying shrieks of pain as they far too quickly burned to ashes. Then they turned to the new comer still wielding a fireball.

"How much time was that?"

~Scratches~

Everyone else had gone back, but she hadn't. She couldn't. Her _civilian_ best friend (who apparently had superpowers) just found out her secret identity as a freaking superhero. She sat on the bleachers of the now ash covered complex awaiting judgment.

"So why are we waiting here again?"

Caroline didn't have time to answer as Zemirah turned up to look at the Caped Crusader who had appeared from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Hey Bats," Caroline said casually.

Zemirah let out short and high-pitched 'meep' before repeatedly smacking Caroline's arm, making a strangled squeaking sound from the back of her throat as she went.

"Ok, ow. Stop. You don't need to hit me to get my attention."

"Yes. I do, because the _FRIGGIN' BATMAN_ is standing right in front of us!"

She suddenly jolted and looked in front again. It wasn't just Batman. Several members of the League were now decorating the bleachers. Zemirah covered her open mouth with both hands, inhaled sharply and then ceased her breath for a moment.

"Breathe, woman, breathe," Caroline scolded.

"Ohh… My. Gosh. This… This is the _Justice League_. This is Ohmygosh, are you in trouble? Areweintrouble? Did I get you in trouble?"

"No one's in trouble," Black Canary soothed.

Zemirah gasped and sagged in relief.

"Start talking," Batman gently commanded.

The two started their shared interpretation of the battle which led to Zemirah's explanation of her powers. After which Zemirah was sent home, _after_ she was sworn to secrecy, of course. Caroline had a very distinctive feeling she'd be seeing Zemirah and the League in the same room again very soon.

~Scratches~

 _2011_

After a lot of fighting on their part, Zemirah was finally being instated as a member of the team, and therefore a superhero in general.

"She likes chocolate, right?" M'gann asked as she put the cake to bake.

"Like a madwoman, but she'll love anything you make her, Megs."

Robin, Wally, and Kaldur were hanging up a welcome banner.

"Hey, Nightmare, how does it look?"

At her nickname, Zemirah looked up. Robin was hanging upside-down from the rafters, holding up his end of the banner.

"Great, now get down from there you big show-off!"

Robin cackled before hooking up the placard and front flipping down from his perch.

"And he sticks the landing folks," Wally joked.

"And I'd have maimed him if he didn't," Caroline added, giving her acrobat boyfriend a kiss on the cheek.

"Has anyone seen Connor? I can't find him anywhere."

Artemis strolled in looking a little worse for wear.

"Why you need 'im babe?" Wally asked.

"He and Zatanna were supposed to help me set up her room here. Zatanna's helping, but I haven't seen him at all."

"Well, we're done here, so I'll help you guys."

"I can go find Connor," Robin said before disappearing to look for him.

"And I need to go collect our newbie, I'll be back in about an hour guys."

With that, she set off to the main hangar. As she set the correct Zeta coordinates, she paused to look at her left palm. The silvery markings still stared back at her like an enigma without answer. She enjoyed her relationship with Robin, but when she had a moment of silence to herself, she simply couldn't help but wonder…

Shaking her head from those thoughts, she set the coordinates and left.

 _ **Recognized: Pink Cougar, B-012**_

~Scratches~

After catching a bus to Zemirah's house, she knocked on the door. A tall woman with short, greying black coils in a blue sundress opened the door.

"Oh, hello."

"Hi Mrs. Atlas. My name is Caroline, I'm looking for Zemirah?"

Mrs. Atlas smiled warmly, her tired eyes sparkling.

"Go ahead, her room is left of the kitchen."

Caroline followed her instructions and knocked on the door decorated with posters from dance recitals. She knocked twice before entering after getting no response. Zemirah sat on her bed, her pink jean-jacket sleeves rolled up to her elbow as she stared expectantly at her arms.

"What are you doing?"

Zemirah jolted with a gasp.

"Uh… Just, admiring the tattoos."

"Yeah… Sure. Come on, we gotta go."

Zemirah grinned rolled her sleeves down, grabbing her gloves and shoulder bag.

"Mama, I'm going with Caroline!" she called.

"Where are you going?"

"Her house."

"Is there going to be supervision?"

"Yes, Mama."

"Alright, be good my little Sweetie-pookie!"

"Mama, how could I be bad?"

After she shut the door, Caroline gave her an intrigued stare.

"Sweetie-pookie?"

Zemirah shrugged.

"It's not the most embarrassing thing she could've called me."

~Scratches~

 _ **Recognized: Pink Cougar, B-012**_

 _ **Recognized: Krystallo, B-013**_

Caroline caught the other girl as she slumped forward, slightly disoriented and more than a little dizzy from the trip. Zemirah took a few deep breaths before righting herself.

"Is it always like that?"

"Just the first time."

She gave her outfit a once over before catching up with Caroline.

"Kid Flash and Robin will want to give you the 'Grand Tour' of the place later, but for now just stick with me, okay?"

"Got it."

When they got to the kitchen Zemirah's jaw dropped and her eyes went wide. She stared at the welcome party her colleagues had made just for her. Caroline couldn't help but preen in pride a little at the amazement on her friend's face.

"Thank you!"

Caroline beamed as their fearless leader welcomed her to the team only for her smile to drop when something appeared to be wrong. She watched in silent puzzlement and furrowed her brows when Zemirah spun and shrugged off her jacket. She never took that off why would she… The whole room went peacefully silent as the denim hit the floor and Kaldur's eyes lit up in recognition. She watched as the two seemed to connect on a different level. It was only when flashes of gold passed that she came out of her stupor with a gasp of shock.

"Uh, what just happened?"

Caroline watched as Kaldur wrapped his arm around Zemirah's waist and introduced her as his soulmate. While the two were showered with congratulations and shocked questions, Caroline quietly slipped away, losing herself in thought. In that moment, Caroline could not remember a moment where she felt so conflicted. She was breathtakingly happy for Zemirah; but at the same time; she felt a stabbing pain. As if realizing it for the first time all over again swallowed her sobs.

She would never get to meet _her_ soulmate.

Caroline had nearly made it out of the lounge but froze when she felt a hand on her wrist. She looked back to find Zemirah with tears rolling down.

"Please don't cry…" Caroline choked.

Before she could object, Zemirah was hugging her tightly and softly murmuring that it would be okay through her sobs. It took the taller girl a moment to understand what was happening.

Zemirah was crying _for_ her.

Zemirah _felt_ what it was like to not know your own soulmate, to have never gotten the chance to even meet them. She could feel others' emotions. And she could feel the very depth and breadth of Caroline's sorrow. Somehow, that made the burden feel just a little lighter. After a few minutes, Zemirah stopped crying and let Caroline go.

"Better?" Caroline asked.

"Are you?"

"I'm fine you big crybaby."

Zemirah nodded with a wry smile and let Zatanna and M'gann lead her away to get tissues.

"Are you really alright?"

Caroline turned to see Robin looking at her.

"Really, I'm fine Shadow."

Robin took right hand, entwining their fingers.

"I know I'm not your soulmate," he whispered softly, "but I promise to love you the best I can for as long as you want me."

Caroline sighed and smiled.

"You are too sweet, you know that?"

"Yeah… C'mon, Connor got Zemirah a welcome gift."

The two made their way out in the hall to see Connor giving Zemirah a slightly wilted welcome bouquet. The gesture made Zemirah practically bounce with excitement.

"Sorry it's a little… smushed."

"Yeah, that was my fault," Robin called. "I snuck up on him, sorry."

Caroline laughed, letting her troubles fall away for a while. She was surrounded by friends, and life didn't get much better than this.


End file.
